Ironclad Pan Co is honouring cast iron’s ancient reputation for durability – even if it goes out of business before the guarantee expires.
When Kate Slavin makes small talk with other dog owners at Grey Lynn Park, the conversation invariably touches on her job running a company selling the only cast-iron cookware produced in Aotearoa. “Every time, someone has a story about their family heirloom cast iron,” she says. “It’d be like ‘My brother got my grandma’s cast-iron pan, I’m so pissed off!’ It’s felt like nearly everyone I’ve bumped into has their own story.”
The iron-carbon alloy’s history is a tale spanning millennia, cast in different shapes ranging from Dutch ovens to woks, Japanese Tetsubin kettles to Danish Æbleskiver pans. Whatever form it takes, cast iron’s key characteristics remain the same: as a cooking medium, it’s an excellent conductor of heat, and it lasts a very long time, provided it’s cared for and well-seasoned. But the popularity of cast iron in European and American kitchens in the 20th century waned – or as Slavin puts it, was “interrupted” – with the arrival of aluminium and stainless-steel pans, and later Teflon-coated non-stick skillets which promised quick, convenient cooking that left behind no trace in the pan.
In recent decades, however, Teflon’s sheen has been dulled due to health concerns and the environmental impact of throwing out and replacing scratched non-stick pans. By Ironclad’s estimates, at least 1.3 million non-stick pans go to landfill every year – and the company wants to change that. Slavin and her husband Levi came up with the business idea in 2018 when Kate, a designer by trade, start sketching designs for a new skillet inspired by their own set of inherited cast-iron pans. The next year co-founder and “marketing and business-minded guru” Joe Carter came onboard, and Ironclad was launched. Based in Auckland, as is Skellerns, the foundry that produces its cookware, the company has sold just under 10,000 pans since 2019, and is forecasting between 10,000 and 15,000 will be sold this year.
Ironclad operates a made-to-order model, with Skellerns completing production runs based on the size of orders received, and pouring and finishing each pan by hand. There have been a few times when the business has run out of stock, says Slavin, but with nearly three years’ experience under its belt, and thanks to Carter’s forecasting expertise, the founders have a better grasp of the supply-demand equation. Carter admits it’s not “economically savvy” to rely on a made-to-order model rather than mass production, which could help reduce production costs. “But we wanted every product to be unique, we wanted to put a three-generation guarantee on it,” he says. “Just because it’s easier doesn’t mean it’s better.”
The Ironclad promise – that its cookware will last three generations, or 100 years, from the date of purchase – is not just a marketing gimmick, says Carter. Should its pan “warp, crack, or lose its integrity” during that time, the company will replace it. The co-founders take their pledge seriously – every possibility, from the business shutting up shop to the disappearance of emails as a form of communication in the future, has been accounted for. I spoke with Slavin and Carter some more about the implications of honouring an obligation when you’re not around.
You set out a contract – a legally binding agreement – with purchasers, and that’s a serious thing. Why was it so important to get the guarantee right?
Kate Slavin: We called a lot of lawyers, we did a lot of research and we did a lot of soul-searching as well, going ‘Can we really do this?’ It is our reputation on the line because we want it to be a proper contract – and we would always honour it. We got really bogged down in the legalities of it but when we stood back and thought about the history of cast iron, it’s been around for thousands of years and it’s one of those materials that, the more you use it the better it gets. So, we were fail-safe in that way.
We haven’t been established for very long but the foundry we work with has been around for at least 50 years. We know, because we can see the production process, they use good-quality ingredients in the actual iron makeup. There is no toxic scrap crap that might get into them if you’re making them overseas and you’ve got no control. If it’s looked after properly – that’s the only caveat – then we’ll honour it.
Joe Carter: Rather than us designing something that would last two, five or 10 years, it was [about] “how will you and your kids’ kids and your kids’ kids’ kids look after this for 100 years?” You don’t see this in other areas – it’s not really thinking about the stewardship of something for future generations. So philosophically, it was more about what does the future look like for future generations with this product as a vehicle for it.
What challenges did you encounter when trying to shape and articulate the contract?
Slavin: We talked about trusts and how those worked. I remember talking to my family lawyer about that and she said the difficulty when you’re a business is that because the contract is between the business and the customer, it’s a different beast. We went around in circles there and then we talked to insurance companies but they weren’t going to touch it because they didn’t know about all the materials. It ended up being something we took seriously and is legally binding because we’ve signed it, all three co-founders.
Our plan for the business is that, whatever happens down the track (which is also in the contract), our values of sustainability, family and craft will be honoured. Because we’re not going to live for three generations, when we come to the day that somebody else has to take it over, it’s going to be a big deciding factor in how that’s handled.
Carter: From my side, it was about how do we communicate this so it’s not just a marketing ploy, and that’s where Kate came up with the idea of putting it in the base of every pan. If you lose your printed copy, [the contract] is in the bottom of your pan…If in 99 years, [customers] want to replace it because it’s defective, then my grandkids can sort that out.
A lot of modern home cooking sacrifices the pleasure of the process for convenient, quick results. How have customers enjoyed cooking with cast iron?
Slavin: To a lot of the wannabe chefs who didn’t know much about it before, there’s been a lot of surprise and delight in how it’s performed. And because it’s so versatile, to be able to fry and sear and then bake in the oven or roast, that aspect of convenience does play into the pan. There is a lot of set up involved – I’m not going to lie, you have to season it – and there is a slight change in your style of cooking. But the more you do it, the easier it becomes. A lot of parents have bought the pan for their younger kids starting up their new homes and not necessarily cooking together but sharing the same experience of cooking, apart. They’ve got one in their flat and sharing recipe ideas or making the same thing. That’s been a really nice story that’s come back to us.
Carter: About six months into starting Ironclad, we bought Felicity Morgan-Rhind in as a shareholder. She’s a film director by trade but she was trained by Peter Gordon in London for seven years as a chef. She makes all these gorgeous recipes – there’s about 80 or 90 on our website – but it’s rare you’ll find a 15-minute recipe from Felicity. It’s a process, it’s a journey, it’s not just about convenience. And through those recipes, she’s demonstrating the versatility of what you can make in a cast-iron skillet. Whether it’s baking, desserts, lunches or bunches or all the things – the story around cast iron is that it’s great for searing steak but it’s so much more.
Slavin: It’s minimised my kitchen equipment. I have to admit I’ve got four skillets – two big ones and two little ones – but I’ve thrown out all my cake-baking Teflon-coated crap and I’ve got no other pans [other than] a stainless-steel pot. You come to realise you don’t need all this other single-use equipment.